UPDATE: Google Pages has been disbanded by Google. Thus, Mind Palette (my late website) is no longer available. The original Riven XP article from the the website is here reproduced:

How to Play Riven in Microsoft Windows XP

This tutorial will teach you how to get Riven: The Sequel to Myst to run in Microsoft Windows XP.

OK, so you got this really cool game called Riven back when you were still running Windows 98/ME/2000. You played it obsessively; everyday, after school, you would rush home and throw one of the discs into your PC just so you could once more be immersed in that beautiful and shattered world that is Riven. Now, you know practically everything there is to know about the game. You haven't played in a while because you want to savour your hard-earned victory before returning to Riven, also you've upgraded your OS to Microsoft's brand spankin' new Windows XP. After a while, you get the itch again and install Riven on your new system. The installation process goes well. You open your start menu and click on your Riven shortcut... That's when your whole world falls to pieces...

Does this sound like you? If so, you've come to the right place; I went through the same agony you're experiencing right now. Luckily, there's a cure.

Riven Updater 1.02 Patch

The first and easiest solution to your problem would be to go to Brøderbund's Website and download the Riven Updater 1.02 Patch; however, this may not be quite so easy now that Brøderbund's Website no longer exists. Fortunately, one guy at Steve's XP Games Corner was smart enough to archive a copy of the patch before Brøderbund shut down. Thanks Steve!

Under the “Compatibility” tab, place a check next to the “Run this program in compatibility mode” option.

Select “Windows 98 / Windows ME” from the dropdown menu.

Apply the change and click “OK.”

QuickTime Movies have no Sound

Well, now Riven is playable, but why is there no sound for any of the movies? Is this the question you're asking yourself? Try this:

Find the file Mohawk.w32 in your Riven directory.

Open it with a plain text editor, like Notepad.

Change the line that reads “fEnableAudioProxy=true” to “fEnableAudioProxy=false” (without quotes).

Save the file in place of the original.

My Sound STILL doesn't work!

If editing the Mohawk.w32 file according to the directions above didn't work, the problem most likely is a compatibility issue with your version of QuickTime Player. Try uninstalling your version of QuickTime and installing the version that came on Riven Disc 1. This should solve your problem, if it doesn't, I'm afraid this author is all out of solutions. There is probably a solution out there somewhere, but it is not here. Sorry.

Conclusion

I hope this article has been helpful to you; if it has, be sure to check out my other articles sometime.